Bible in a Year.

On day 229, Jeremiah 6 announces the imminent invasion of Jerusalem, warning of the danger of disobedience. Ezekiel 34-35 criticizes corrupt leaders and describes judgment on enemy nations. Proverbs 14:25-28 offers guidance on integrity, fair judgment, and prudence, emphasizing the importance of leading with wisdom and responsibility.

1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great destruction.

2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate woman.

3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them that are under his hand.

4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are grown longer.

5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.

6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression is in the midst of her.

7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity and stripes are continually before me.

8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.

9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a grape gatherer into the basket.

10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and and they will not receive it.

11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient and he that is full of days.

12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch for my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.

13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty of deceit.

14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.

15. They were confounded, because they commmitted abomination: yea, rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.

16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see and ask for the old paths which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls. And they said: we will not walk.

17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.

18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great things I will do to them.

19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and they have cast away my law.

20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.

21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall, neighbor and kinsman shall perish.

22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.

23. They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of Sion.

24. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labor.

25. Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.

26. Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

27. I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt know and prove their way.

28. All of these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.

29. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.

30. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.

Chapter 34

1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2. Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to the shepherds: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed themselves: should not the hocks be fed by the shepherds?

3. You ate the milk, end you clothed yourselves with the wool, and you killed that which was fat: but my flock you did not feed.

4. The weak you have not strengthened, and that which was sick you have not healed, that which was broken you have not bound up, and that which was driven away you have not brought again, neither have you sought that which was lost: but you ruled over them with rigour, and with a high hand.

5. And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd: and they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered.

6. My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in every high hill: and my flocks mere scattered upon the face of the earth, and there was none that sought them, there was none, I say, that sought them.

7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

8. As I live, saith the Lord God, forasmuch as my flocks have been made a spoil, and my sheep are become a prey to all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd: for my shepherds did not seek after my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flocks:

9. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

10. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself come upon the shepherds, I will require my hock at their hand, and I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock any more, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more: and I will deliver my flock from their mouth, and it shall no more be meat for them.

11. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them.

12. As the shepherd visiteth his hock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit my sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

13. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land: and I will feed them in the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the land.

14. I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel: there shall they rest on the green grass, and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of Israel.

15. I will feed my sheep : and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.

16. I will seek that which was lost: and that which was driven away, I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve: and I will feed them in judgment.

17. And as for you, O my flocks, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and of he goats.

18. Was it not enough for you to feed upon good pastures? but you must also tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures: and when you drank the dearest water, you troubled the rest with your feet.

19. And my sheep were fed with that which you had trodden with your feet: and they drank what your feet had troubled.

20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to you: Behold, I myself will judge between the fat cattle and the lean.

21. Because you thrusted with sides and shoulders, and struck all the weak cattle with your horns, till they were scattered abroad:

22. I will save my dock, and it shall be no more a spoil, and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

23. AND I WILL SET UP ONE SHEPHERD OVER THEM, and he shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

24. And I the Lord will be their God: and my servant David the prince in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken it.

25. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they that dwell in the wilderness shall sleep secure in the forests.

26. And I will make them a blessing round about my hill: and I will send down the rain in its season, there shall be showers of blessing.

27. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be in their land without fear: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have broken the bonds of their yoke, and shall have delivered them out of the hand of those that rule over them.

28. And they shall be no more for a spoil to the nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth devour them: but they shall dwell securely without any terror.

29. And I will raise up for them a bud of renown: and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither shall they bear any more the reproach of the Gentiles.

30. And they shall know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they are my people the house of Israel: saith the Lord God.

31. And you my flocks, the flocks of my pasture are men: and I am the Lord your God, saith the Lord God.

Chapter 35

1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy concerning it, and say to it:

3. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, mount Seir, and I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and I will make thee desolate and waste.

4. I will destroy thy cities, and thou shalt be desolate: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

5. Because thou hast been an everlasting enemy, and hast shut up the children of Israel in the hands of the sword in the time of their affliction, in the time of their last iniquity.

6. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will deliver thee up to blood, and blood shall pursue thee: and whereas thou hast hated blood, blood shall pursue thee.

7. And I will make mount Seir waste and desolate: and I will take away from it him that goeth and him that returneth.

8. And I will fill his mountains with his men that are slain: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in thy torrents they shall fall that are slain with the sword.

9. I will make thee everlasting desolations, and thy cities shall not be inhabited: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord God.

10. Because thou hast said: The two nations, and the two lands shall be mine, and I will possess them by inheritance: whereas the Lord was there.

11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will do according to thy wrath, and according to thy envy, which thou hast exercised in hatred to them: and I will be made known by them, when I shall have judged thee.

12. And thou shalt know that I the Lord have heard all thy reproaches, that thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying: They are desolate, they are given to us to consume.

13. And you rose up against me with your mouth, and have derogated from me by your words: I have heard them.

14. Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth shall rejoice, I will make thee a wilderness.

15. As thou best rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee: thou shalt be laid waste, O mount Seir, and all Idumea: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

25. A faithful witness delivereth souls: and the double dealer uttereth lies.

26. In the fear of the Lord is confidence of strength, and there shall be hope for his children.

27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to decline from the ruin of death.

28. In the multitude of people is the dignity of the king: and in the small number of people the dishonour of the prince.